Manage your subscription

Stop the rot

30 May 2018

Certain animal carcasses can become so quickly infected with dangerous bacteria that they pose a significant threat to human health – for example, pork and chicken. Yet soon they will become alive with fly maggots competing for protein. Why are the maggots immune to the bacteria and their toxins, and why can’t this be harnessed for human protection?

• The evolutionary answer is that maggots are adapted to eat raw meat, whereas humans have adapted to eat cooked meat.

Maggots are better than we are at countering the toxins made by bacteria associated with raw chicken and pork, such as Escherichia coli …